Survival

After the morning meal, the males took flight and headed west to the human colony. Once they were small specks in the sky, I said goodbye to Brienne and then flew to their training island. There I gathered a bow, ten arrows and a knife. I slung the quiver across my back so it sat between my wings, finding that that was more comfortable for me than having it at my hip like the males wore it. I found a holster for the knife and strapped it around my waist as I flew west. The males remained a black cloud along the horizon, apparently unaware I was following them. It was a long flight, but my nervousness made it pass a lot quicker. Today I was going to prove myself to them, to my race, to Tobias.

When I was approaching the village of humans, I saw it was already in distress. Many of our fighters had landed, but a few were circling from above and firing arrows or small knives down to the ground. I drew an arrow from my back as I quickly approached the battle and took aim. I zoomed past and let the arrow go, pulling up as I watched it miss my target.

“You shouldn’t be here! Tobias will be angry!” a fellow archer shouted above all of the painful human cries as he flew past me. I loaded another arrow and took aim once more.

“I’m helping!” I argued as I flew past Arno again, firing my weapon and watching the bow strike a human in the arm. The other archer nodded slightly before continuing to focus on his own attacks. I had time to fire another six of my arrows before a crowd of humans exited their large spaceship with a weapon I had never seen before. It was a compact rectangle of dark metal, and it made a loud banging noise every second. As I was taking aim at one of the humans that held one, something whizzed past me and stunned me. I let go of the arrow on accident as I quickly brought myself to a stop and looked behind myself. Arno seemed to be hit by something and blood sprayed out from his chest. His limp body spiralled down to the ground. What the hell?

“Retreat! Retreat!” Tobias’ voice boomed, being clear to hear despite the screaming of the humans and the noise of their new weapon. I used the last of my arrows and hit another human in his arm before I circled back towards the flock of males that were heading to the sky and travelling north. When I looked down, I spotted Tobias still on the ground, holding his knife out towards a human that was approaching him quickly with a metal weapon. Tobias was getting backed into the dense forest, and he wouldn’t be able to take off for flight there. He was trapped, and needed help. That metal thing could kill him, just like it killed Arno!

“Oh, Toby…” I groaned as I stopped flying forwards and turned around. I dived down to the trees and landed about twenty metres behind the start of the forest. As quickly as possible, I climbed down the tree and then jumped onto the ground. Tobias had been backed against a tree directly on my left, and the human was holding the metal object to Tobias’ naked chest, prepared to kill him. He was talking to Tobias in their language in an insulting tone. I gripped strongly onto the handle of my knife and pulled it out. This was it. I had to prove myself and I was risking my life and Toby’s life. There was no room for mistakes now. I took in a deep breath, aimed, then threw the knife. My mouth gaped as the blade crashed into the human’s skull, making him freeze, then fall over to his right. Toby’s face fell into complete shock before he turned to his right, seeing who his saviour was. The shock soon turned into anger.

“Marion! What are you doing?” he yelled as I ran up to him.

“Saving you, clearly,” I remarked as I bent down and picked up the metal weapon. I passed it to Tobias. “We should take this back and study it. I’ve never seen one before.” Tobias was too surprised to argue, and just took the weapon from me. I pulled the knife out of the man’s skull and wiped it on the grass to remove most of the blood and brain that was stuck to it. I was about to speak again, but human voices stopped me.

“We have to leave,” Tobias hissed before leaping up the tree he was backed up against moments ago. I followed him right to the top, then took flight. We sped off in silence, going north like the others had. No firing happened. The humans ignored us, or didn’t see us.

“Well, that was close,” I breathed with relief, breaking the silence. Tobias glared at me with a stone cold look.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Marion? Actually participating in the fight this time? You could have been killed!” he shouted, clearly enraged by my actions.

“Well, I thought it was actually a good thing that I was there, since you almost got killed!” I countered. He couldn’t deny that. “Not to mention I injured a few of them with my bow as well, and I’m still alive, so don’t act like it was a bad thing that I followed you!”

“It is a bad thing! You are a female Kasien and you are not supposed to fight! I don’t care how good you are, and I don’t care that you saved my life! You are not allowed to fight with us!” Toby argued. The scolding made me feel horrible about my choice. In my heart, it had been the right thing to do, and I had saved his life! How could that not count for anything?

“I’ve never been like the other females, and you of all Kasiens know that! I am one female out of over thirty. Why can’t I fight too?”

“Because I said so!” Tobias yelled defiantly, ending the conversation. We approached a tiny island and landed on it. There was the rest of the army, attending anyone who was injured.

“Tobias! We were beginning to think you hadn’t made it,” Cassius called out. There were a few murmurs around the group that mentioned Tobias’ name, but then a few that mentioned mine.

“Who are we missing?” Tobias asked, making everyone quiet.

“Just two; Arno is dead and Grover is captured,” someone spoke up. Everyone hung their heads, knowing that Grover would be being tortured by having his feathers pulled out slowly in hope that he would talk and give up our location. But he wouldn’t. He would die a painful death, but he would keep us safe.

“There are a few crucial injuries due to that new weapon of theirs. We need to return home and heal them,” Sylus said.

“I have obtained one of those weapons. We can study it when we return,” Tobias announced, a whisper of approval going around the crowd. “But right now we need to take care of the ones who are hurting. Let’s go back. And for those of you who are wondering, I did not ask Marion to join us, and I will be investigating once we are home.” Again, the males talked amongst themselves and I could hear my name being said. I felt guilty, unwanted and disliked by every single one of them. That was why I knew I would never get a mate, and that’s why I wanted to fight alongside them. It was my purpose, the only thing I could contribute to our race.